Rutgers Site Honored for 50 Years of Weather Observations by National Weather Service

National Weather Service (NWS) Eastern Region Observations Program Leader Chris Stachelski, left, presented a 50-Year Honored Institution Award to Anthony Broccoli, chair of the Department of Environmental Sciences at Rutgers. The award was presented to the New Brunswick, NJ site on behalf of NWS Mt. Holly, NJ. (Photo by OPL Andrew Beavers, NWS Charleston, WV).

The National Weather Service (NWS) presented Rutgers with a 50-Year Honored Institution Award for the long record of service of the current weather station operated by Rutgers University–New Brunswick.

Max Hazzon, senior Meteorology major at Rutgers, taking the weather observations at the weather station located at the Rutgers Gardens.

Each morning at 8 o’clock, an observer visits the weather station located at the Rutgers Gardens to record air and soil temperature, rainfall, snowfall and evaporation for the previous 24 hours and transmits this data to the National Weather Service. The observers, primarily students in the Rutgers meteorology program that is housed in the Department of Environmental Sciences, are a dedicated cohort willing to start their day early to collect data widely used to document variations in weather and climate.

Rutgers has been observing the weather daily for over 100 years, but the current station has been in continuous existence since 1968, said Anthony Broccoli, chair of the Department of environmental Sciences, and an occasional observer at the site alongside the meteorology students.

“During that time, well more than 100 Rutgers students have taken the daily weather observations.”

The Rutgers station is part of a network of 8,700 stations across the country that provides vital information about trends in climate and other important weather events.

The site serves as a valuable teaching tool where students have an opportunity to learn about the manual aspect of observing and the different types of equipment used for observing meteorological parameters.